New Install Advice (update included)

[ChrisL]

My "vehicle" is 32 bit Windows XP, Celeron 3.2?Ghz, 1G Ram, I think the kicker is the graphics card GeForce FX5200.  There seems to be some question if this card is compatible with the new release 2.0 LL or if I have to use an older release. 

So, that is question #1 I guess:

1) What release ... (would prefer the latest if it will support the drivers which are the nvidia 173.xx for this card)?
2) The manual suggests I get advice for the set-up I would like.  I have XP on one small (40G hard drive) which is good enough for what little I do on it, and would like to install Linux Lite on a second clean Hard Drive that is 120G, and would like to dual boot.  Best way to do so?

Your help is much appreciated.  Thank you.

Chris

[shengchieh]

[same answer as topic: Dell D430]

Can't answer your specific question - maybe someone else.  But ...

When I distro-hop to find an more update linux distro, I stick with liveCDs (and LL iso is live).  I pop the liveCD + boot and see if everything work.  I recommend you boot the LL iso - do
NOT install - and mess around with LL.  See if it recognizes all your peripherals and whether you like LL.  If it recognizes everything, chances are high, the LL install will too.  If not, shut
down, remove the liveCD and move on.

Sheng-Chieh

[gold_finger]

1) What release ... (would prefer the latest if it will support the drivers which are the nvidia 173.xx for this card)?

Don't know answer to that.  Best bet is to boot LL2 and see how it works.  Possibly, you could just run the Driver Manager  (Menu -> Settings -> Install Drivers) from the live CD/USB just to see what it finds.  Don't bother trying to install driver to live environment -- that won't work -- but just see what Driver Manager finds.  If it does find and show an NVidia driver (any, not just one you listed), then I'd say there is very good chance everything will work out well.

2) The manual suggests I get advice for the set-up I would like.  I have XP on one small (40G hard drive) which is good enough for what little I do on it, and would like to install Linux Lite on a second clean Hard Drive that is 120G, and would like to dual boot.  Best way to do so?

Best way would be to have LL2 installed only to the second drive (including its boot loader, grub), then set the boot order of the drives in the BIOS to boot from that second drive first.  If you do it that way, your Windows drive will retain the Windows boot loader and will still be bootable itself even if you end up messing up the Linux drive at some point in future.  Meanwhile, the Linux grub boot loader will see the Windows drive and add it to its menu as a boot choice.  So, if you boot from the Linux drive, you get a nice easy choice of which to boot from.

Two ways to go about doing that:

1.  Disconnect the Windows drive while you install LL to the other.  Let LL use whole disk and do standard installation.  (It will automatically create and format partitions it needs -- a root and swap partition.)  When done, shutdown computer, reconnect Windows drive and reboot again (remember to change boot order of drives so LL drive is used for booting).  Boot into LL2, (there will be no Windows choice yet), open a terminal and run this command to add Windows to the boot menu:

Code:

sudo update-grub

You next reboot will now show choice between both Windows and LL2.

2.  Don't disconnect Windows drive and use the installer option that lets you manually make partitions and direct where the boot loader gets installed.  (When you do it this way, Windows will be a choice right away after you reboot -- no need for extra step described above.)  This is not really that difficult, but you need to pay attention to what you're doing so you don't accidentally wipe out Windows.  After selecting "Something else" from "Installation Type" screen, you will be brought to the partitioning page.  You'll likely see two drives:  /dev/sda (likely the Windows drive) and /dev/sdb (likely where you want to install LL).  Just make sure that you make your partitions on the non-Windows drive and also direct the boot loader installation (near bottom of partitioning window) to that same drive (sdb in this example).

General Partitioning Guideline for Standard Install:
*  Swap Partition:  size = 1-2 times RAM, format = linux-swap
*  Root Partition:  size = rest of disk, format = Ext4, mount point = "/"

Alternative Partitioning Guide if you want to keep data files separate from system files:
*  Swap Partition:  size = 1-2 times RAM, format = linux-swap
*  Root Partition:  size = 20GB, format = Ext4, mount point = "/"
*  Home Partition:  size = rest of disk, format = Ext4, mount point = "/home"


P.s.  If you prefer the "Alternative Partitioning", but have disconnected the Windows drive -- no problem!  Just use the "Something else" option as described above and you can make the partitions in same way.

[ChrisL]

Thanks gold_finger for the quick and informative reply.

As far as the dual-boot, you sold me on option #1, seems simple and pretty fail-safe.

The videos card/173 legacy driver issue ... I brought this up for a number of reasons I guess.  Initially I installed LL 2.0 to a spare hard drive to play with it and had some driver issues (had to safe boot install, loaded 173 legacy drivers from Synaptic and after that still would only come up in safe mode) then after, I read this as well:

"it is fail assume your install is dead like my installs because of the newer kernel.
kernels newer than 3.2.0-42  DESTROY any hope for a working nvidia 96 / 173 setup
the new X server also kills legacy support. A double head shot!
nouveau is simply fatally broken and unlikely to care about legacy video cards.
I've had to downgrade distros to puppy linux racy or Xubuntu 12.04"                        
... this from thread  https://www.freecinema2022.gq/forums/index...opic=119.0

and then in this:  https://www.freecinema2022.gq/forums/index...opic=161.0  the user ultimately got it going with some assistance editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf ... but that was 1.06

I am relatively new to Linux so don't totally understand the issues in the first post I noted (new x server/+ 3.30-42 kernel), especially since I use an identical FX 5200 nvidia card in a similar system with Mint 13 LTS which I believe runs: 3.2.14 and I am using the legacy drivers with that card. 

Also, there has been a recent release of the Legacy drivers 173.14.39 to address some issues:
http://linuxg.net/the-nvidia-173-14-39-l...structions
    Added support for X.org xserver ABI 15 (xorg-server 1.15).
    Updated nvidia-installer to consider the "libglamoregl.so" X loadable extension module to be in conflict with the NVIDIA OpenGL driver. This module can cause the NVIDIA libGL to be loaded into the same process (the X server) as the NVIDIA libglx.so extension module, which is not a supported use case. (not sure why update drivers if they are not usable in newer kernels of confilct with x server, or maybe this was a fix for the concerns voiced?

This distro is not the only one with FX 5200 issues as you might expect.  It's a pretty old card and system, but on the other hand a large part of the appeal with light distros is in being able to breath new life into tired older systems, and in it's heyday the FX5200 was probably the most popular card nvidia sold.

I am totally fine with struggling a bit to get 2.0 up and running with the card, but it just isn't possible that would be nice to know.  ;D So, if anyone has any info about this please let me know? 

[ChrisL]

Went through install w/nomodeset to avoid the blank screen, installed nvidia legacy 173.14.39 drivers with synaptic, udated, etc. then shut down; reboot.  Reboot goes still to a blank screen unless I choose Recovery Mode.  Once up nvidia card is recognized, correct drivers in place, resolution set properly, looks GREAT!

Only issue now after repeated trials, is that I can only boot through recovery mode, otherwise I just get the blank screen.

Is there a way around this?  Otherwise it's looking awesome, I'm very excited.

Chris

EDIT: I fixed the bootup issue editing the /etc/default/grub and it comes up fine now as far as graphics, etc.  My only remaining issue is that it boots up without displaying the grub screen choices.  I tried a suggested "no menu" fix but that did not work.  I will keep plugging on that, but I am marking this solved as the initial questions and issues are solved (and start a new thread in boot-up section if needed).  Thanks!

Chris

[gold_finger]

Good job getting it up and running!

For the benefit of others who may be in similar situation with Nvida card, what exactly did you do when editing /etc/default/grub?  Did you just add "nomodeset" to it or something?

Nevermind.  Just saw your solution on your other post:

*  Open a terminal and type following to open /etc/default/grub file with text editor as root.
Code: [Select]
gksu leafpad /etc/default/grub

*  Look for this line:
Code: [Select]
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

*  Change it to this:
Code: [Select]
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i915.modeset=0"

*  Save file, then close text editor

*  Still in the terminal, enter the following:
Code: [Select]
sudo update-grub

For some reason, I thought that line was only for Intel-based cards -- but what do I know?  If it worked for your Nvidia card, that's all that counts.  Good job.

My only remaining issue is that it boots up without displaying the grub screen choices.  I tried a suggested "no menu" fix but that did not work.

Not 100% sure what you mean here.  Will have a look at your new post for details.